ABOUT ME

I'm trying not to lose my marbles. I am aware that I have already mislaid some of them ... one is stuck under the sofa, one in the Lego box and the 10 year old may have inadvertently swallowed the other

We live in West Yorkshire and are a family of five; Me, The Husband, The 11 Year Old, The 10 Year old and 20 Year Old. We also have two dogs, Jessie the chocolate Labrador and Cleo the spanish rescue Podenco.

Me - I'm Laura, I work as a Social Media Manager for a large brand. I consider myself an expert on gin, cake and moustaches ... in that order.

The Husband is a designer. We've been together for 15 years . He spends most of his time wishing I was more interested in housework, looked like Andrea Corr and didn't talk in my sleep. He loves football, rugby and cricket, his family and cooking which is fortunate as I don't ... the cooking bit that is.

The 11 year old has the memory of an elephant. She loves school, reading, music and wants to be a vet when she's older. She is always surprising me with her kindness and her ability to say embarrassing things really loudly in public.

The 10 year old only has two speeds, VERY fast and asleep. If you can leap off it, roll under it, ride it or break it, he will. He NEVER stops eating. If he's grumpy it's because he is either hungry or tired. According to the scan he was supposed to be a girl, so imagine our surprise when he popped out on The Husband's birthday, a boy.

The 20 year old is my stepdaughter and came to live with us permanently a few years ago.

You can find me on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here or just email me at laurachora@gmail.com

Archives

Pages

A day at the seaside …

We set off for the seaside, my sister, the 9 year old, the 7 year old and I. We’d been planning a day at the coast for a while and this was it. We packed up the car and we were off to Whitby.

We decided to brave the A64 past Leeds Fest as we reckoned that revellers, the majority of who are teenagers, would be snoring in their tents at 9.30 on a Sunday morning. Our theory was proved wrong as mud covered people emerged from hedges – looking worse for wear and tried to push their cars through the mud to the exit of the field … that we were passing. . My Sister reckoned we’d be there for just gone 11 and the children were behaving in the back so it was quite a pleasant trip. My Sister and I don’t see each other as often as we’d like, life kind of gets in the way, but a road trip was the perfect time to catch up with all of our gossip.

We arrived in Whitby at 1pm, two hours later than planned, due to two serious road accidents that slowed us to a standstill at various points. Still – that was two extra hours of catching up time. We parked up and laden with our seaside goodies wandered down to the beach.

The children immediately set about digging as we tried to get lunch underway. I’d never had a BBQ on the beach so my sister had bought a disposable one from Aldi. The BBQ refused to light, and we were starving. 75 matches later and only a slight whisp of smoke to show for our efforts we decided to go for Plan B, a rather horrid sausage sandwich from the beach cafe, which took them 45 minutes to make.

We didn’t let that put a damper on our day though as we played in the sea, made a volcano, played giant frizbee and just enjoyed the beach. The kids ran from our camp at the top of the beach to the sea for four hours and loved every minute of it.

We left the BBQ whisping away behind us until it decided, four hours later to light sufficiently to BBQ corn on the cob and sausages for tea!

My one regret was that we left the dogs at home. Part of the beach is specifically for dogs to run wild and I watched happy dogs frolicking in the sea. Next time I’ll take them.

We hiked back to the car, because that’s what it feels like after a full day of sandy fun, and left our stuff before wandering into Whitby. We had a two pronged mission – ice cream and penny arcades. Neither disappointed.

We set off home at 7pm with wind chapped rosy cheeks, tired but happy after a day at the beach. The 7 year old kept mumbling about the amount of sand he had down his pants but they had both had a fab time.

It was a revelation. I have never been a beach sort, when the children were little I found it stressful keeping an eye on them and constantly having to shadow them while stopping them eating sand. This was a lovely relaxing affair though, Aldi BBQ aside, and one I’ll be repeating.